The next few hours passed with very little happening. With only thick trees and a quickly fading sun, it was hard not to feel lost in the dense jungle. Following behind the man, who Khai still had no name for, and the large, still living Crasher, Khai had attempted to make conversation to little result. Each time Khai tried to get shed some light on his current situation, or his surroundings, he was met with aggressive silence. This gave Khai a lot of time to think about everything that had happened, too much time.
Khai absent mindedly pulled on the small shell from his necklace, he’d been wondering about he chains on the strangers body, but after his previous attempts at conversation he knew he wouldn’t get much of an answer if he tried to ask. They seemed to wrap around every part of the walking mountain, Khai’s best guess was that the chains were attached around his waist somewhere. How the man walked around so easily with all of the metal surrounding him? Surely it must have rubbed against his skin something awful, maybe that was why he seemed to be eternally annoyed. It definitely wasn’t anything to do with him having to endure Khai’s constant questioning over the last few hours of their trudge, no it must have been the chains.
Lost in thought, Khai was quickly drawn back to the present as he tripped over a particularly overgrown root in the path. Catching himself from falling, Khai heard something that sounded distinctly like a snort from the supposedly stoic man ahead.
“I’m glad I can be of amusement; I didn’t think you knew I was still back here” Khai called to the silent stranger.
Unsurprisingly, he was met with more silence. With a groan and a few mumbles, he got to his feet and dusted off dirt covering the many new cuts and bruises on his exposed legs. It was only when he peered around the bulk of the Crasher that he noticed the sea of trees finally broke to reveal a clearing ahead. Khai started to walk ahead, excited to be done with the heavy air and lack of scenery, until he accidentally got too close to the tusks protruding from the creatures face and it let out a fresh shriek of annoyance. It’s chains visibly tightening, the Crasher quickly went quiet again before continuing to be dragged behind its captor.
Before Khai had a chance to complain, a feminine voice called out ahead from the clearing.
“Brennie’s going to be pissed that you stabbed another Crasher and dragged it back like that. Didn’t you learn from the earful she gave you last time, Verodin?” The up-beat voice belonged to a young woman casually walking through the clearing toward them both.
The woman was much more well equipped for the jungle environment, with a loose shirt, shorts and dark hair tied up in a ponytail, she was happily strolling through the overgrown grass covering the clearing floor. It was then that she noticed Khai standing sheepishly behind the Crasher. He tried to give her his best ‘I don’t know anything’ smile in reassurance. Her hand moved toward the shortbow at her waist and the relaxed demeanour was quickly replaced by an icy professionalism.
“Prisoner or new recruit?” The words were short and clipped, all traces of the carefree woman gone in an instant.
“Go find Reo, he’s going to want to talk to the kid and take a look at his Kaor.” Verodin said, surprising Khai with the lack of his usual roughness when addressing the woman. “I don’t think he’s a threat but I’m going to stick around just in case. I’ll leave the Crasher in the Pit on my way over” He indicated toward the currently silent creature with a tilt of his head.
The woman nodded, her hand pulling away from the bow and the tension in her face quickly changed to a look of curiosity. She took one last look at Khai, then at the Crasher, after making a quick ‘tsk’ sound, she turned and set off at a jog back toward the now visible hillside hidden amongst the canopy.
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Verodin started walking, and pulling along the Crasher, in the direction of the hillside. Now that they were out of the dense trees Khai noticed that the grass left in the wake of the captured animal seemed undisturbed. Or at least not to the degree that dragging a creature the size of a small hut should be doing. Contemplating this, and wondering why he hadn’t noticed sooner, Khai continued to follow Verodin.
“Who was that?” Khai asked. Verodin didn’t respond, returning to his previous silence. Khai sighed, hopefully the others would be more talkative, or at least give him more insight into what might have happened with Spirit.
The entrance into the hillside was huge, blocked off by a fitted stone panel that must have acted as a door, the panel was far from inconspicuous. Velodin pulled the ‘door’ open just enough to allow the Crasher to fit inside. Once they were all inside, Velodin sealed the panel back in place, giving Khai just enough time to realise they were likely about to be encased in darkness. That wasn’t the case however, Khai stood in wonder as he looked around the tunnel, all across the walls and celings a dark blue mossy substance could be seen giving off a gentle blue glow. After the initial sense of wonder had receded, Khai noticed the carvings made into the walls. Strewn about between patches of moss were drawings depicting what Khai could only assume were animals, though Khai had never seen anything similar to those shown in the admittedly impressive artwork.
Velodin walked over to the chained Crasher and, with seemingly little difficulty, picked up the creature and carried it into a chamber off to the right. Before Khai realised he should probably follow the pair, he heard a loud thud, followed by a soft clinking, and then the unmistakable sound of a Crasher making sure anybody nearby was aware it was not at all happy. Recalling the earlier conversation, Khai made the very intelligent guess that the Crasher had been made acquainted with the pit, which by the sound of it was just as the name described. Khai almost felt bad for the creature.
Velodin reappeared from the tunnel a moment later, his previously bare arm now covered by the chains, Khai couldn’t see the bladed end that had been embedded in the Crasher’s hide, but he was quite sure if he asked, he wouldn’t get an answer from the stoic man. Glancing toward Khai, Velodin tilted his head toward the main path of the tunnel, Khai took this as meaning he should continue walking and did so.
The tunnel seemed to descend slightly as Khai walked along, still admiring the drawings covering the walls he was surprised when the tunnel opened into a large cavern. This must have been the centre of the hillside base as many people were wandering between the various tunnels coating the edges of all different shapes and sizes, making general niceties as they passed one another before hurrying across one way or another. Not all of the tunnels had the faint blue glow that dominated the entrance, Khai could see some with shades of red, green and even one tunnel giving off a faint purple hue, it actually looked a bit menacing.
The colours must be some kind of directional system. How did they make the moss grow like that though? Khai mused as he wandered behind Velodin. Khai noticed a few of the people making an ineffective attempt at not staring in his direction, he realised his clothes were covered in mud and dirt, with many of the twigs still tangled in his messy hair. He’d given up on trying to be rid of the sticks hours ago.
The few people staring quickly shuffled away down various tunnels, a large presence at his side told him that the cause was likely the heavily armoured man leading him through the cavern and not Khai’s own presence that had scared them away. Velodin continued past Khai, heading toward the tunnel on the opposite end of the cavern that ended in a dark wooden door. As he followed, Khai noticed the lack of any interactions the man had with the rest of the cave-people, with many moving apart to let him pass through instead of the various greetings they gave one another. Many of those he passed gave Khai pointed glances as they passed, Khai held onto his necklace and tried to focus on the path ahead, trying to ignore the many whispers he could hear echoing around the large chamber.